First off: Mapleson, you pwn.
Second:
I both agree and disagree with you on the head post, Jarett.
Video games might not have anything to do with courage, but they can inspire, and you, personally can inspire people, as an artist, as the pwnerer.
Remember PurePwnage episode 10, when Jeremy read the kid's letter?
For years someone may dream of courage and not have the courage, or perhaps not know how to use it, until one day they watch your show and realize they aren't alone.
Games themselves may be meaningless, but PurePwnage is not, it really left the realm of games quite some time ago, PP is now about something else, an idea.
Jeremy is a geek, but he shows himself in those "when you have no time" moments, as a strong-willed, selfless hero. Despite his awkward nerdiness, he's a confident guy. A character like that inspires.
How many people wear the bandanas and talk the accent, because they see a role model in Jeremy!
Perhaps PurePwnage is sometimes that little tiny nudge that separates an almost hero from a hero, that tiny bit of courage, and rush of adrenaline - that makes you think "why not me, right now?" and step forward, like the pwnerer.
If the show was just about some random loser, hundreds of thousands wouldn't watch it. The show gives gamers reinforcement, positive reassurance, that even a geek, even a gamer, so highly stereotyped against and scolded by society - can pwn and make a difference.
Jeremy helps gamers accept their inner self and figure out the paradoxal opposites. Most of us at some point think "I'm not a hero, I'm just a gamer, I can't do anything in RL, I must conform to my stereotype, an inconfident loser, good for nothing but games." Concept of Jeremy states: "no, even a gamer can be a hero, in fact a higher chance that a gamer will be one."
Your fame, your character is the glue that holds the PP camaraderie together.
In the words of Rich Burlew:
People in general don't like to question their lifestyle. Someone who plays the game but cheats is a pain in the ass, but someone who doesn't bother to play the game at all - make them think and doubt why they are playing in the first place. To be a player, you have to first sit down at the table.
So what I am trying to say is, the entire life, its framework, is a game. In fact, it's what Jeremy is saying and showing the world. A game with better graphics and no respawn. But it doesn't change a thing in the fact that art inspires people, and that pwnage is glorious.
I will never dare say that I know what Adam Mapleson was thinking when he acted so bravely and heroically, what was going through his head, at the moment of that instant decision, but I would not deny the possibility that the show at some point, in some way, could have inspired him or affected his self-image.
With respect,
Konrad 'maniac' Knox
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